Nouns and Adjectives

Nouns are names of persons, places, or things. Words like 'sky,' 'water,' 'brother,' and 'office' are examples of nouns. Nouns can be studied in detail at: The Roles of Nouns in English Grammar.

Adjectives are words that are used to describe a noun. In other words, adjectives tell us the quality of nouns. Adjectives can be studied in detail at: Adjectives - The Qualifiers that Add Emphasis to Your Words. 'Clear' can be prefixed before ‘sky’ to form a sentence like ‘The clear sky is difficult to paint.’ The word 'clear' describes the sky and hence is an adjective in the above sentence. Similar are ‘Cold water is not available’, ‘My eldest brother is an army man’, and ‘I have a spacious office to work from.’ 'Cold,' 'eldest,' and 'spacious' are adjectives as they give more information about their respective nouns.

There are cases in the English language where the word, irrespective of what part of speech it belongs to, does a different role. At times, nouns do the work of adjectives, i.e. describe other nouns. In this article, we look at cases where nouns do the work of adjectives or nouns act as adjectives.

Nouns as Adjectives: This is interplay of roles is very common in the English language. Let us pick a few nouns and try making meaningful phrases with the same: Teacher, Girl, Horse, Cottage, Village, School, Cart.

Some of the phrases that can be formed are: ‘School Teacher’, ‘Village Girl’, ‘Horse Cart’, ‘Village School’, and ‘School Girl’.

More combinations can also be possible. In all the above examples, the first word though a noun is describing the second word, also a noun. The first noun in the above cases does the role of an adjective and the second is doing the role of a noun. (Try the same exercise with the following words: Black, Story, Dog, Love, Computer, War.

All rules of grammar that apply to adjectives would also apply as such to the noun acting as an adjective. The rules are regarding:

• Placement of a Noun acting as an Adjective: The noun doing the work of an adjective always comes first. ·
• Speaking of a Noun acting as an Adjective: While speaking such words, stress is laid on the first word. For example, while saying ‘race horse’ stress is laid on ‘race’ rather than ‘horse’. ·
• Number of Noun acting as an Adjective: Generally speaking, the noun doing the work of an adjective will always be singular. For example, we cannot say ‘schools teacher’ or ‘horses cart’. It has to be ‘school teacher’ (school teachers in case of more than one teachers), and ‘horse carts’. Only the second noun takes the plural form. Only in certain cases does the first noun (the one acting as an adjective) take the plural form, for example, ‘clothes line….’, ‘news reporter….’, ‘customs office…..’
• Writing of Noun acting as an Adjective: Such words may be written as two separate words or as one compound word. For example, ‘Love Story….’ is correct and so are ‘Headmaster’, ‘Head Master’ and ‘Head-Master’. Consult a dictionary for the correct spelling. More than one Noun acting as Adjectives: More than one noun can also be used to describe another noun. For example, ‘cricket team manager’, ‘company executive board’

Some grammarians advise against use of nouns as adjectives. Let us decide the case after considering some examples:

Sentence 1: ‘Apple juice is a health drink’.

Words apple and health are nouns acting as adjectives describing juice and drink respectively. The sentence is simple and makes complete sense.

Let us rephrase the sentence in a manner that apple and health do not work as adjectives:

Sentence 2: ‘I hear that juice made from apples is a drink which is good for health’.

Although grammatically correct, the sentence is much longer and contains too many nouns. The reader has to wait to be able to exactly understand the role of each noun.

It is clear that use of nouns as adjectives is imperative for better construction of sentences.

In the following sentences identify nouns acting as adjectives:

1. Throwing stones at a street dog is not a good idea.
2. I enjoy Mac D’s chicken burger.
3. Try this green olive salad.
4. Plant disease diagnosis requires both traditional and new techniques.
5. Some of the school teachers are on strike.

Answers: street, chicken, olive, Plant disease, school

Ref: High School English Grammar & Composition – Wrenn & Martin, http://grammar.ccc.edu.comnet.edu

• The Functions of Nouns and Noun Phrases in English
• Teaching Preschoolers about Nouns as People, Places, and Things
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Nouns and Adjectives